Miss Laila, Armed and Dangerous

by Manu Joseph

This, we know, is the treaty in all loyal relationships where the whips and chains may not usually appear to be whips and chains. Men and women let themselves be bound, held in captivity and abused to a permissible degree on the promise that in return they would get the other.’

This is how it works, sweetheart, to be in love is to agree to bondage.

In the battle between presumed good and presumed evil, good is hiring poorly.

He has to be vigilant. A life without meaning is fragile, it can collapse any moment into purpose.

The tired body calling an end to ceaseless doubt, the body preserving itself through the myth of absolute certainty, isn’t that what faith is in its very core? Isn’t that what love is, and the final draft of a poem, and all of finished art? The body claiming, ‘It’s good,’ when what it is really saying is, ‘It’s enough.’ You stare long enough at the world, you see fatigue.

‘When the elite of a system become the underclass in another system, they search for a moral cause to restore balance of power. This is popularly known as activism.